President Jacob Zuma has “decided enough is enough” and the ruling African National Congress will now accelerate distributing the nation’s wealth more equally between the black majority and the more affluent white minority, Minister Lindiwe Zulu said in an interview at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Durban, South Africa, on Wednesday.

“There’s nothing wrong with changing the constitution where it’s not helping you – where we need to change, it we will change it,” she said. “Our people are not going to forgive us if we prolong this thing. Radical economic transformation – what does that mean? Ownership of the means of production. What does that mean? Bringing black people into the space of the bigger economy of South Africa.”

Black South Africans were dispossessed of their land during more than three centuries of white-minority rule and the bulk of profitable farms and estates are currently owned by the smaller group.

‘Eat Politics’

“We have to really push it now because if we don’t, we will find ourselves with the same people we said we liberated saying, ‘You liberated us and then what? We are not going to eat politics’,” Zulu said. “Where government feels there mustn’t be any compensation, there shouldn’t be compensation.”

Lindiwe Zulu went to preach radical economic transformation in Free State. She says it's to help black ppl. I guess BEE and BBBEE failed.

“This government must not be diverted from the real issues that are facing South Africa,” Zulu said. “The real issues facing South Africa are poverty, inequality and unemployment.”

‘Too Slow’

Jeff Radebe, a minister in the presidency and the ANC’s policy chief, said while land redistribution had been too slow, land grabs weren’t being considered at this stage.

“That is not on the table at the moment,” he said in an interview at the Durban conference. “Everything that we do is in accordance with the constitution.”

Radebe also said the government and ruling party were also working to restore the country’s investment-grade credit rating, which was cut to junk by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings Ltd. after Zuma fired Pravin Gordhan as his finance minister.

Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe

“Those who said the downgrades were not important were wrong,” he said. “There is just no way that a downgrade can be anything other than bad for South Africa. It is making us even more determined to push the story of South Africa. The challenges that we face require that we work closely with business to invite them to invest.”

Those comments echoed the views of Zulu.

“What is important is how the government responds. We have not changed anything in as far as our policies are concerned,” she said. “Now that we have a downgrade what is important for us is to look at the programs that we have and see how we can use those programs how to pull us up. It has to be restored. We don’t have a choice.”